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While there are many tall tales and jokes about Harlan that put him in the role of "sexist pig", I've never experienced it or heard about it first hand from a trustworthy source. Well, he did grab Connie Willis' breast onstage at a convention in a comedic way, which he sort-of apologized for. Does that make one sexist? I think it takes more than one grope in more than one context to make one sexist. I've played touchy-feely with women playfully before; if they're the right sort of friend they don't mind. If I've misjudged them and they turn out to object, am I automatically a sexist? I think not. It's not like I'm groping random women in the street or the office secretary just to get some kicks.
The closest thing I *have* heard him say that was sexist was a rant about how bad most female authors were in speculative fiction, and how their work was unfairly lauded as good precisely because they were authored by women. Mind you, this was 15 years ago; perhaps his opinion has changed. At the time, I agreed with him, at least on the first part; I'm not really qualified to judge the latter. But neither of us believed that there were not or could not be good female writers of sf.
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